Mulroney on Harper

[August1991]

"When I was there with my 'big idea' government people said, 'he's got too many big ideas. We want him to relax a little bit.' So these things come and go," said Mulroney.

"I think Harper is very smart, very effective and I'm sure he and his colleagues are going to come up with some very attractive ideas."

The national Conservative caucus meets next week in Charlottetown to discuss the fall session of Parliament amid much chatter that the minority government has run out of policies and needs to hit the reset button.

....

"Judging from Prime Minister Harper's first - I guess I could call it 'term' in office, in the sense that there appears to be a break coming - I think he's done exceptionally well," Mulroney said, notwithstanding the present Tory minority's public support has stalled at around 30 per cent in opinion polls.

"In fact, I would say that his government is probably off to the best start of any government that I can remember in my lifetime," added Mulroney, whose gift for eyebrow-lifting hyperbole is the stuff of Ottawa lore.

Looking trim and healthy after a near-death health crisis two years ago, Mulroney was in Ottawa to tape an interview that will coincide with the mid-September release of his political memoirs.

Afterwards, the 68-year-old waded into the mid-day tourist crowds outside Parliament Hill, shaking hands, flattering the children and happily posing for pictures with all who asked.

...

Asked Wednesday whether his memoirs will explain the since-revealed $300,000 cash payments, Mulroney played book promoter.

"Buy a copy. Buy a copy. Buy a copy," Mulroney said, beginning before the question was complete and continuing until after it ended.

CP

Harper is benefitting from Mulroney's experience (just as Chretien benefitted from Trudeau). This is a good thing in Canadian politics. When Diefenbaker took power, he was on his own (and wouldn't have taken advice anyway).

Functioning democracies not only make it possible to kick the bums out, the incoming soon-to-be bums need some knowledge. Mulroney is providing this to Harper now (and so too all the other players in Mulroney's governments). Harper will no doubt do the same for his successor.

Mulroney, I'll note, managed wihout any help - although I've always suspected that Trudeau phoned Mulroney every so often. Mulroney would have taken the call.

As to the idea that Mulroney tried to do too much, I don't know if I agree. For his kick at the can, Mulroney got alot done. What did Chretien achieve in his time? Nuttin'.

Mulroney got in with a huge a majority and knew that he had four years before he'd have to face the electorate. Harper doesn't have that luxury.

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As to what policies the Tories should adopt now, I think I'll start a thread on this question. Offhand now, I'd say:

1. Smaller government (federal government focussed on its own jurisdiction)

2. Free trade & movement of labour/securities between provinces

3. Reform of EI & CPP (let Quebec decide its own RRQ but ensure transferability)

Edited July 26, 2007 by August1991

[White Doors]

1 - lower income taxes. substantially.

2 - productivity gap.

[ScottSA]

1. Smaller government (federal government focussed on its own jurisdiction)

Re #1

I'm not entirely sure a minority Conservative government has the power to do that. Harper has demonstrated that he is for devolution of federal authority to the provinces, but that doesn't seem to have translated into an impulse toward 'smaller government' in the classical liberal sense of the phrase. Quite the contrary in fact, since the last budget focussed on a return of 'social programs' rather than tax cuts. I can't remember the early Reform Party Guru who coined the phrase "the embedded state' to describe a government like Canada's which has intruded into the very social fabric of the country, but it is an apt description of the Canadian regime. Canadians now take it for granted that the place to look to fix all the ills of the world is government. It's a sad state of affairs, and one more resembling a sheep farm than a country of builders, but there it is.

Withdrawing the tentacles of government from society in an embedded state is a daunting task to say the least, and not one a minority government can carry off. It will take decades and it will take the understanding and agreement of society to carry off. All too many people will see having their lives and responsibilities returned to them as a very bad thing.

[jdobbin]

As to the idea that Mulroney tried to do too much, I don't know if I agree. For his kick at the can, Mulroney got alot done. What did Chretien achieve in his time? Nuttin'.

Things haven't gone completely great for Mulroney this week.

http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/stor...?hub=TopStories

Brian Mulroney has been ordered by a court to pay $470,000 to former business associate Karlheinz Schreiber.

The order comes in a default judgment by the Ontario Superior Court of Justice.

Schreiber sued the former prime minister to recoup $300,000 in cash the businessman says he handed to Mulroney over three meetings in hotel rooms in New York and Montreal in 1993 and 1994. Mulroney had already left politics at the time.

As for what Chretien did. He ended the deficit and kept Canada out of Iraq.

Other than that, it was a pretty uneventful government, one that Chretien stayed too long in.

Edited July 27, 2007 by jdobbin